Punjab Assembly: 11 bills introduced as opposition relents
The Punjab Assembly (PA) on the fourth day of the on-going sessions on Wednesday finally got down to some legislative business after the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led opposition spent the first two hours thumping desks and raising slogans against the Unification Bloc and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Eleven bills and a resolution were tabled.
The session started off with PPP’s Raja Riaz taking the floor and dominating with a speech criticising the chief minister (CM) and his government.
Law Minister Rana Sanaullah eventually introduced 11 bills, all of which were referred to the concerned standing committees. Also, a resolution regarding an amendment in the Rules of Procedure of the PA 1997 was presented and referred to the standing Committee on Law and Parliamentary Affairs.
The session started 55 minutes late. Riaz started by deriding Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for having constructed many bridges and underpasses to “please family and friends”. The Sharif family, he said, had completely ignored the rest of the province.
Earlier, when Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal moved to start the business of the house with the Question Hour he was interrupted. Sanaullah tried to reply to questions related to the Services and General Administration Department, scheduled to be tabled during the session. However, opposition members would not let him. The speaker then postponed the Question Hour to a later session.
PPP’s Nargis Faiz Malik, rising on a point of order, demanded that ‘lotas’ be thrown out of the assembly.
Raja Riaz said after the speaker had announced the formation of a committee to probe into the doctors’ matter, the government had gone ahead and issued notices to them. This was condemnable and violated the privilege of the house. He demanded that the government immediately withdraw the notices.
Riaz, also, said Wednesday was a black day in PA history because his speech had been interrupted and a one-hour limit set for it by the speaker. Another, he remembered, was when former speaker Afzal Sahi had stopped him and Sanaullah from entering the PA premises. Sanaullah objected and said that it was Riaz himself who had suggested a one hour duration. The point was seconded by the speaker.
Riaz continued and condemned the government for sealing some of NADRA’s offices in Lahore on Tuesday. The Punjab government, he said, was being run by the CM’s secretary Dr Tauqeer who had suggested to the CM not to appoint a health minister, a local government minister, an education minister or a communication and works minister.
He said the CM had appointed Liaqat Durrani, his brother-in-law, as the president of the Cooperative Bank. This was a clear violation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on re-employment. He said 890 officials were now working on upgraded seats which violated the principles of merit and transparency.
He said that Punjab government had not paid salaries to some of its departments for the last six months.
Sanaullah tried to respond to Riaz’s speech, the latter would not let him speak insisting that only the leader of the house respond to his speech. Sanaullah promised that the CM would reply to all of Riaz’s speeches once he returned from abroad. He welcomed Riaz’s permission to proceed with house business.
PPP MPA Shahrukh Malik presented a privilege motion against Bahawalpur district police officer Babar Bakhat Qureshi which was referred to the privileges committee.
The proceedings were adjourned till Thursday at 10 am.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2011.
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